The La La Land of Appetizers, if you will.

For someone who watches far more movies than sports, the Oscars are kind of like my Super Bowl. I gather a group of friends to eat all the dips, drink, cheer on people we want to win, and boo at long speeches. And because I'm a sucker for a good theme, I think there should be at least one dish or drink to represent all nine best picture nominees. If you aren't that ambitious, it's okay—just make sure to have one kid-friendly food to represent the award season MVP: Lion's Sunny Pawar.

If someone did a "what's in my bag" story, it'd probably be filled with tiny sandwiches. The Arrival of this bread inception will be the highlight of the night—okay, after Meryl Streep's speech—and the most Instagrammed bite of the year.

LA is known as the most healthyish city in America, but in La La Land, Ryan Gosling was desperate to serve only fried chicken at his jazz club. Eat it while he gives an impassioned speech—he can't see the hot sauce all over your hands. The glamour!

You'll get the same feel-good emotions eating this dip as you did while watching Hidden Figures. Senior web editor Alex Beggs—who created this masterpiece—should probably work for NASA. Imagine the dips that could be made in space! Amy Adams could eat them in Arrival 2!

When you start getting restless midway through the looooong award show, have people assemble cute (and surprisingly easy) apple mille-feuille in front of the TV. Fences nominee Viola Davis waxed poetic about Meryl Streep's apple pie at the Golden Globes, and this is the appetizer-y version of it.

For Hanukkah, Michael Solomonov, chef at Zahav in Philadelphia, PA, makes these doughnuts. "One year my staff and I realized that with tweaking, our challah dough has all the characteristics of really good doughnut batter. Now this version inevitably makes an appearance on our Hanukkah menu at Zahav. When we fill them with fresh quince paste, it’s the classiest jelly doughnut." If your jam is too thick, a few pulses in a food processor will loosen it up—no need to add water.

These dim sum–style shrimp toasts make a surprisingly simple—and utterly addictive—at-home snack. With this method, you don’t even need a deep fryer to pull them off. Learn how to make this recipe and more in our online cooking class with Sur la Table.

The secret to layered, flaky, chewy-crunchy scallion pancakes? It’s all in the roll (and the spin, and the re-roll). Not to mention the low and slow crisping. Once you master this recipe, you might not ever order them at a restaurant again.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, shred the cooked meat with two forks and then mix it vigorously with a wooden spoon to combine with the other ingredients. This recipe is from Wildair, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016.

Sadly, you’re not going to be able to waltz down to the corner store and pick up escargots and shells. We ordered the Saveurs brand, along with the shells, from Amazon.com. This recipe is worth the wait.